Urge your members of Congress to support SRS for FY 2016 and PILT for FY 2017

As Congress works to finalize the FY 2017 appropriations process, they now have an opportunity to keep their commitment to counties by fully funding PILT and reauthorizing the SRS program.

The Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program provides payments to local governments in 49 states—nearly 1,900 counties, boroughs and parishes—to offset reduced property tax revenue due to the presence of tax-exempt federal lands within their jurisdictions. Without the certainty of full funding for the PILT program, counties across the nation will be unable to provide essential services such as education, law enforcement, search and rescue, road maintenance and public health to our residents and millions of federal lands visitors.

Secure Rural Schools (SRS) payments support public schools, public roads, forest health projects, essential search and rescue and emergency services, and many other county programs. These funds help provide stability for forest counties and school districts affected by reduced revenue due to federal policies that have dramatically curtailed federal timber receipts. For over 100 years, the federal government has shared 25 percent of federal forest revenues with counties to compensate them for federal ownership of forest lands that cannot be taxed at the local level, but these revenue-sharing payments are no longer sufficient to cover the services we must provide. Unless SRS is quickly reauthorized, forest counties across the country will face severe budgetary shortfalls that could impact counties' ability to provide services to our residents.

With many lawmakers currently in their home districts for a two-week recess before returning to complete the FY 2017 appropriations process, now is the time to urge them to support PILT and SRS. To assist your efforts, NACo has developed comprehensive advocacy resources, which you can find below. NACo will continue to engage with Congress and the Trump Administration to stress the importance of these programs and ensure counties have the financial certainty and stability we need to properly serve our residents.

Take Action

• Click here for a sample letter telling your members of Congress how inaction will impact residents
• Click here for a sample op-ed and click here for a sample press release to customize and send to your state and local media
• Click here for sample tweets

Resources

• January 23 letter to President Trump outlining public lands priorities, including PILT/ SRS
• January 23 letter to Congress outlining public lands priorities, including PILT/SRS
• PILT Dear Colleague letter to House Appropriations Committee
• PILT Dear Colleague letter to Senate Appropriations Committee
• House PILT Dear Colleague letter to White House OMB
• NACo Action Center on the PILT Program

Media Coverage

• NACo Press Release (March 10): Forest counties brace for cuts as congressional inaction reduces payments
• NACo blog (April 3): Three bipartisan letters in support of PILT sent to appropriations leaders and White House OMB
• USA Today (Jan. 26): Forest-rich western states push to renew funding 
• Statesman Journal (Jan. 26): Forest Service funds face 90 percent cut in Oregon
• Hood River News (Jan. 31): Oregon faces major timber fund cut
• The Oregonian (Feb. 17): Guest county columnists: Rural counties need a longterm solution as federal program expires 
• Wallowa County Chieftan (April 4): County loses chunk of federal funding
• The Salem News online (March 21): County collects what may be its last Secure Rural Schools payment
• Reno Gazette Journal (April 5): Trump’s proposed public land cuts would hit rural Nevada hardest

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Urge your members of Congress to support SRS for FY 2016 and PILT for FY 2017

2017-04-11

Blog

2017-05-01